At midday in the dead of summer, the sun was always so bright and dazzling. Everyone was either huddled in their rooms taking a nap or had found shady spots to escape the heat. The vast Biyun Nunnery was eerily quiet.
Fu Tingyun, wearing a moon-white cotton shirt and a bamboo hat, slowly walked westward along the overgrown, thorny wall of the nunnery's backyard.
The sun-baked ground trembled with heat, making her sweat profusely. Her clothes were quickly soaked through, clinging damply to her body. Low thorns frequently snagged her skirt, and every few steps through the tangled weeds, a swarm of tiny black insects would buzz out. She had to crouch down to untangle her skirt from the thorns, and sometimes take out a handkerchief to swat away the unknown insects, looking quite disheveled.
Fu Tingyun had no time to care about that. Looking around, she finally stopped under a large locust tree.
